*****

The multiculturalist side of the Americas is celebrated in this vivacious disc by Venezuelan pianist Clara Rodriguez, from Amerindian to European to Black African. Right from the off, the atmosphere is that of fiesta, with added maracas to Genaro Prieto’s Apure en un viaje, a Venezuelan joropo.

Two tangos by Nazareth, full of energy (the second is the well known Odeon), lead to a robust account of Gershwin’s Three Preludes before Cuban Jose Maria Vitier’s glorious Danza de fin de siglo, with its glittering passagework, emerges.